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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201364">I wasn’t aware I was missing something until I found you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/skywardeleven/pseuds/skywardeleven'>skywardeleven</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Formula 1 RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, But mostly fluff, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Slow Burn, Tiny bit of Angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:00:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,783</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201364</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/skywardeleven/pseuds/skywardeleven</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex has a cat café. His two best friends Lando, an upcoming streamer, and George, engineering student, work there part time. They are all loving life until an old friend appears.</p><p>Or how everything changed the day that Charles Leclerc stepped back into their lives.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Other Relationship Tags to Be Added</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I can't concentrate in my uni work and I've had this idea for a while... I am not used to writing anymore and I am quite scared to post this, but the sooner I do it, the sooner I'll lose the fear, right? so... here's the AU that no one asked for!</p><p> </p><p>This chapter is just to set the scene, really, expect shorter ones from now on, I guess... still not sure how this will go!<br/>As a disclamer, this is just a work of fiction, I do not know any of the drivers and it is set in an alternative universer, so it's definetly all in my head.</p><p>enjoy</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex stumbled down the stairs, eyes still half opened, munching on a plain toast. Before opening the door, he put his slippers to the left and changed them for his flat black vans. Being as he was used to the motions, he didn’t notice that when he finally opened the door and stepped into the café area going straight to the coffee machine, George was already there making sure that the tables were clean.</p><p>“You are early today” George said next to him.</p><p>“JESUS GEORGE” he screamed, startled, hand going to his now accelerated beating heart. The rush of adrenaline made him want to push George square in the face, but after a millisecond of control, he decided against it. He wanted to start the day properly and beating his friend and co-worker (more co-worker than friend if anyone had asked him at that exact moment) didn’t seem the best way to do it. “What are <em>you</em> doing here already, your shift starts in one hour”</p><p>He shrugged. “I woke up early and decided to come say hi to the beasts a bit early today” George said while he shuffled Alex away from the coffee machine, taking the portafilter off his hand and putting it back with new coffee. “still haven’t fixed you coffeemaker, I see.”</p><p>“No need for it having this one here, isn’t it?” Alex answered, ignoring George’s raised eyebrow, too early to bite into provocations. “So, if you wanted to come early to be with the cats for a bit, why are you not in their room?” he said without accusation.</p><p>“Just saw them all very quiet through the window, I didn’t dare enter”.</p><p>Alex understood that. Having 15 cats sounded appealing at first, and it was definitely worth it, but the more you worked with them, the more you understood that they wanted to do as they pleased, and bothering them was not a good idea if you liked the skin in your hands. And they had plenty of time during the day to go around avoiding scratches. It was a morning during the week anyway, which meant few clients and more time for the helpers to play with the cats unbothered. He had a look around the place, with all the tables and sofas arranged to create a warm atmosphere and plenty of planks, boxes and places on the walls for the cats to roam around freely. He barely noticed when George placed a cup of latte in his hand, and took a sip, embracing the warmth and the much needed caffeine.</p><p>“You could at least say thanks, mate”. Alex opened his eyes and looked at his friend, apologetic “sorry, of course, thank you”.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah… I know you are useless in the morning, but still no excuse to be rude”, George nudged his arm. They both went to sit at they favourite sofa, chatting about a series they had both started watching recently. Alex was glad that George had decided to come early, he always liked a bit of company in the mornings.</p><p>That was a lie.</p><p>He liked George’s company in the mornings because George knew that Alex was not very responsive at that time and was happy to do all the chatting without asking for much. Having grown up together, he felt completely comfortable around him, no need to hide any aspect of his personality. To be honest, he wanted to kill George half the time, with all his teasing and all the jokes he received. But at least he kept that for later in the day, starting the day easy.</p><p>Once Alex had finished with his coffee, they decided to start preparing the things for the day. George was in charge of doublechecking the bookings, any food allergy, the general state of the eating area and, most importantly, that all the cat toys were in place and ready to be used. Alex, meanwhile, was checking that the cakes, cookies and baked goods were carefully arranged and the fridges full.</p><p>He had opened the cat café two year ago, after deciding that he was not made to study in Uni and he much rather be taking care of his adored small fluffy creatures. With help from his parents and friends (mainly George and Lando) and a lot of work, he had been able to rent a local conveniently placed next to one of the city’s universities. The location provided enough students with need of cats to forget about exams, essays and deadlines, that he had managed to built quite a successful business.</p><p>And he would be forever grateful to George and Lando, who were both working there part-time. They had some more other people helping, since two people at a time were definitely not enough to take care of costumers and fifteen cats, but them three were the ones that had been there since the beginning. Even though Alex was the owner and the other two his employees, they all felt part of it.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Lando woke up late, regretting staying up last night. Why did he have to listen to his chat? Honestly, if he heard the word “marbles” at any point today he would hang whoever had said it. It was 11 am and, deciding to skip breakfast, he settled for a sandwich and a salad before leaving to go to the café. Working only in the afternoons had seemed the perfect idea, because it allowed him to run his twitch channel in the evening and still have the morning to himself. The only problem was, he was finishing with the streams later every day, and sleeping in the morning. Not that he could complain anyway, the café was closed Monday and Tuesday, so he had plenty of time to do everything he wanted. But still, he needed to sort his schedule out. Again.</p><p>He went through the door carefully, not allowing any cat to run away. And why would they, anyway. Lando was convinced he took care of the most spoilt cats in England. They were all well feed (maybe a bit too much sometimes), got their check-ups regularly, and had plenty of people around them ready to play whenever they felt like it.</p><p>A ginger ball of fur came straight to him to rub against his legs. “If I fall or worse, I step into you, it will be all your fault, Fangio” he said sweetly, lowering his hand to pat the cat. He saw three tables occupied with clients, George putting on what seem to be a display for them, trying to get the attention of as many cats as possible while juggling with some balls, and Alex in the bar taking care of dishes and mugs.</p><p>“Nice skills, mate, try not to show off too much, the girl in the corner is about to faint from excitement, and I don’t think it’s for the cats” Lando said while passing next to George to go and help Alex. George put on a smug smile, winked at him, and then had the guts to turn and smile straight at the girl, who lowered her head and nervously tried to grab a cat toy and started wiggling it. Ah, George and his confidence, that cheeky guy.</p><p>“Hi there, Lando, how are you doing”, Alex said when he arrived at the bar and left his things in the corner.</p><p>“Yeah, fine, woke up not that long ago. How’s the day going?”</p><p>“I was wondering! Saw your stream for a while yesterday. That game with the marbles seemed fun, very chaotic”</p><p>“Nooooo, Alex, don’t mention that, I’m so tired of it. Everyone keeps requesting it and I really don’t get why. I am not exactly a commentator, am I? I am a racer” Lando said rushing.</p><p>“hah, a racer, he says. Mate, you have a wheel and pedals in your room. That is hardly racing”</p><p>“Shut up mate, the rush is real, you should try it” Lando had thought like Alex before buying his very basic sim, but that had changed once he had started taking it seriously. It was so much fun and thrilling. And required so much concentration, as well. He did feel quite lucky that it was not real racing, given the countless times that he had ended in a wall.</p><p>“Whatever you say, sure”. Alex was still not convinced. Lando put on his mental list of things to do to force Alex to do a race next time he was around in his house. They all loved cars, so the weird thing is that they hadn’t done that before, really. Sometimes Alex seemed to be too busy with his cats. He checked the list of bookings for the afternoon and gasped “a group of fifteen people? How did that happen!”.</p><p>Alex suddenly made a worried face “Yeah, they contacted me and ask for it, and I know we normally don’t take bookings this large, but they seemed pretty nice and very eager to come. Apparently is someone’s birthday. They will basically have the place for themselves so it shouldn’t be that bad, they can’t bother other people and we can take care that everything runs smoothly.”</p><p>“Ah Alex, you are too nice for your own good” Lando said, sighing. It wasn’t really a problem, he was just being dramatic. They had had that much people before, just not in one group.</p><p>“It’s fine, George doesn’t have any lectures this afternoon so he’ll stay to help” Alex said.</p><p>“Another afternoon free? Is he even studying?”</p><p>“Well, I’ll let you know” George was now closer to them and had been listening “I am working very much, I’m just so good that I have finished all the work that we are supposed to do and you should be thankful that I chose to spend my time helping you two, muppets”.</p><p>“Of course, sorry, how bad of me to forget that you are a genius” Lando answered while making an exaggerated bow. George smiled, satisfied, and walked away again to go and play with the cats.</p><p>They worked quietly until 3.30 pm, rushing then to clean after the people that had just left and getting everything ready for the next group. At 4, the bell rang and Alex walked to the door to receive the clients. Lando saw from the bar how 7 people came in, a group of guys and girls that seem to be his age. He walked closer to them, ready to take their orders, while George was going through the rules of the café.</p><p>“Yes, sorry, my friends will be here soon, they are not very punctual, as always”, he heard one of the guys say. Soon enough, the bell rang again and Alex went to open the door.</p><p>“OH. MY. GOD. Alexander!! Alexander Alboooon!!!” Someone shouted and throw his arms around Alex. Lando found the voice familiar but couldn’t place it. And the stranger had currently his head buried in Alex’s shoulder, who seemed very unsure what to do and had his arms open in surprise. Lando turned to George, who was intensely looking at the pair, face serious suddenly.</p><p>Finally, the stranger stopped hugging a very much startled Alex, and took a step back, smiling. And then Lando recognised Charles Leclerc, who they hadn’t seen in 10 years. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm back! had to change the title because as soon as I posted it I started regretting it... sorry about that! Hopefully this one will stay until the end... I'm just not very good with titles.</p><p>Hope you are all keeping safe! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ch… Charles?” Lando heard Alex say quietly. Charles smiled widely, looking around. “Is that George? And Lando? What a surprise!”</p><p>George had moved next to him, “what on earth are you doing here, Charlito?” he said while giving him a hug. Lando decided that it was only polite to go and do the same.</p><p>“I moved last week, I am doing a year abroad on my studies. What are you all doing here? What a coincidence!”</p><p>“Alex owns the place. Me and Lando come here to play with the cats” George answered.</p><p>“Well, technically I pay them to work” Alex said quickly.</p><p>“You know, working, playing… who cares, same thing” Lando added, also hugging Charles. Apparently, that’s how they were greeting each other now. Lando looked at Charles, trying to remember him as a kid. He had definitely changed his puffy cheeks for a strong jaw, and was looking like he had just stepped out of a photoshoot for a fashion magazine. The eyes were the same though, green and grey and intense.</p><p>Last time they had seen each other, they were all in high school. Charles’ parents had moved to the UK for a couple of years due to their work, and Charles had ended up in George class. The day that Charles showed up to class holding a car figurine and proudly placed it in his desk before class started, was the day that George decided that the new kid was cool enough for him to talk to. They had quickly bonded over that, bringing Alex to the mix afterwards. Lando lived in the same neighbourhood, and he ended up tagging along when the boys met to hang around. They used to meet once a week to yell at each other while playing videogames, or to cycle around the park next to the city. It had been very sad when, after two years, Charles left to Monaco again. At the beginning, they had kept in contact by email (Facebook sadly hadn’t been invented yet) and (they all kind of wanted to forget about it now, the cringe being too high) through myspace. But the relationship had ended up dying, they were too young and lived too far apart. Lando had wondered sometimes, reminiscing about old time, what would have been of Charles, but never got around to actually try to find him online. Surely it would be weird to suddenly receive a request from someone that you hadn’t seen in years, wouldn’t it?</p><p>“So all this is yours, Alex? That’s quite impressive! I didn’t know you liked cats that much” Charles’s smile was getting wider by the minute. Lando saw Alex lowering his eyes, he had never been good with compliments.</p><p>“Yeah, well, I was never one for studying, so this seemed the second-best option”</p><p>“Don’t sell yourself short Alex, you’ve worked very hard and achieved something great” George added. Alex shot an awkward half smile at him before adding “whatever, let’s just move to the table! No point in hanging around the door” and with that he moved them to the group of Charles’ friends.</p><p>George took their orders and Lando helped him prepare everything while Alex stayed vigilant that everything was going fine. Charles was chatting for a while until he decided to grab one of the toys and get the attention of as many cats as possible.</p><p>“If you want to play with them it is easier if you sit on the floor” Lando said to him while putting three cappuccinos and four teas on the table “they sometimes think you are furniture and come to walk around your legs”. Charles beamed at that, instantly standing up and moving to the left side of the sofa to sit down. Lando went back to the bar and turning around he gladly saw that two of the youngest cats have moved close to him and were fighting over a plastic fish that Charles was moving around.</p><p>“Careful mate, you’ll start drooling in a minute” Alex said, and Lando put on a serious face instantly.</p><p>“Sorry, it wasn’t me who was blushing a moment ago, was it now?” he defended.</p><p>“You are both definitely too obvious. He has grown into a very handsome man though, I’ll give you that” George cut in.</p><p>They spend the rest of the afternoon working around, chatting to Charles when they had the chance but trying not to bother him too much, since he was with his friends. Lando had heard him saying he was here for a year, so surely they would have the chance to see him more often. After singing happy birthday and eating cake, the group started to gather their things to leave. Charles came to find the brits before leaving.</p><p>“Sorry we haven’t catch up properly today, guys, we need to do it sometime though! Do you use discord? Should I add you on Instagram?”</p><p>“Lando has been trying to put us in discord for a while, him and his nerdy apps, maybe now that you mention it is a good time to do it.” Lando scowled at George. That guy, honestly, he should shut up more often.</p><p>“I see your friendliness hasn’t changed a bit! Here, I’ll Lando for now and he can send me your IDs once you have them” Charles said laughing, and after hugging them once more, left with his friends.</p><p>“So that was… unexpected” Alex murmured.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>a bit of a short one, but soon enough we'll get more serious developments! Thank you all for reading, kudos and comments are greatly appreciated :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I really thought lockdown would make writing easier, but it's been quite the opposite! I hope you're all doing fine :) this is a bit of a shorter chapter. Did I say slow burn? I am quite enjoying writing them in normal settings at the moment, so maybe I'm stretching it a bit too much, but I find it calming. I promise more action in the next one!</p><p>Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lando took a shower and prepared to open his stream, without having any idea of what to play. He could always start having a chat for a bit, there was always someone that suggested something to do. Maybe too many suggestions, but that was usually not a problem, he ended up doing what he wanted.</p><p>His phone screen light up with a whatsapp from Alex complaining about not understanding discord. He dealt with that while the number of people watching the “stream starting soon” scene slowly increased. After getting Alex´s discord ID and sending a message to George to remind him to install the app he officially turned the camera on and greeted his followers. Turned out the chat wanted to see Lando struggling to understand the physics of a videogame where cars played football in a dome. Yeah, sounded like nonsense but it ended up being a very fun game when you got used to the mechanics. As always, he finished two hours later than he was planning, after a lot of shouting and screaming and laughing. After finishing the stream he recovered his phone and saw that George had texted him with his discord, urging him to do a group chat with the four of them. Honestly, Lando had tried to get them on the app for months, and George had only needed the appearance of an old friend who had grown up to be a model-looking guy to be eager about it. He rolled his eyes as he answered quickly and decided to wait until the next day just for the sake of it.</p><p>-----</p><p>He opened the door only to find George there again, who pointed at a mug while saying “I figured you’ll come down shortly”. He was comfortably seating in the sofa, computer open working on something that Alex couldn’t see, looking concentrated on the screen.</p><p>“You’re here early again” said Alex while taking the coffee that George had apparently prepared for him. It wasn’t a question, so he didn’t need an answer. He sat down and used the opportunity to stare at his friend, who seemed to be unaware of the world. Alex admired how his blue eyes followed lines on the screen, framed by those long eyelashes that anyone would be jealous of. The concentration in his face made him look even more like a sculpture, in Alex’s mind, even if he preferred him with a big smile.</p><p>A notification from his phone broke the spell, making George look up straight into his eyes, and smiling a bit, as if he knew what Alex had been doing. Not that Alex had anything to be ashamed about, right? It was early in the morning, staring at something with a languid look was perfectly normal.</p><p>Lando had created a group chat in discord named “reunion”, said hi and vanished without further introduction. “This mupped, unbelievable, we’ll have to do all the work” George murmured. That sounded like Lando, to throw them all there and stand back to watch to see what happened. He was definitely more the type to pull the strings from behind, cheeky and unnoticed. So Alex took it up to him to start a proper conversation and start to see if they could organise a meeting.</p><p>“What should we say, George? Go for a coffee all of us? Go for a walk or a picnic? I forgot what people do when they meet”</p><p>“What do you mean, you have forgotten?” George laughed “same as we would do if we were meeting, easy. Let’s have pizza and play something”</p><p>That sounded sensible, so Alex said just that, but left for later to discuss where would they meet. See what Charles said first.</p><p>“Right. Time to start the day”.</p><p>-------</p><p>Lando had “started the conversation” and proceeded to ignore his phone while he made breakfast and caught up with an episode of the series he was watching. After remembering to post something on twitter – you know, if you want to be a streamer better act like one and tend to your followers – he opened discord to find a very enthusiastic message of Charles agreeing cheerfully to meet them on Monday night for pizzas. A vivid image of smiley Charles appeared in his mind and softened his mood a bit. He was suddenly excited and decided to offer his house to host the meeting.</p><p>Charles turned out to be quite chatty, not that it was a surprise, but he kept sending random messages with memes or thoughts or jokes. It brought a smile to Lando’s face. He had also seen George and Alex smiling at their phones, and they all seemed quite excited to meet. George kept mentioning it and referring to Charles’ good looks. Lando could only agree with him but trying to keep it cool. He had always thought that George and Alex would end up together, so he tried to scrutinise Alex’s face every time George said something but could not see any bitter reaction. He doubted he had been imagining things, his friends had always been very close, so he had kind of assumed they’d confess to each other at some point. Maybe he was mistaking friendship with love, who knows, this things had never been his speciality.</p><p>On Monday, Lando cleaned his flat, party to help with the nervousness that was building up in his chest. Was he overreacting? He was just meeting an old friend and would have two of his best friends beside him. The four of them had been texting a lot last week, and he was really looking forward to the meeting, but he was afraid he would mess it up. How you mess up a friendly meeting to have some pizza was something that his brain had not wanted to share with him, so he was just using his nervous energy to get an extra clean to a rather immaculate flat.</p><p>Promptly, the bell rang at exactly 6.30 pm. George and Alex were usually not on time unless it was something work-related, so Lando was not surprised to hear Charles’ voice through the intercom. Opening the door, he was engulfed in Charles’s arms. He could definitely get used to Mediterranean greetings if it implied strong arms gently crushing his spine. “Hello!” Charles said smiling, taking a step back and waiting for Lando to move and invite him in.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thaank you for readiiiing! comments are always appreciated, feel free to point anything that is wrong or doesn't make sense, I don't always do a good job at proofreading.</p><p>Stay safe :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex was walking the known route to Lando’s flat while carrying a bag with beers and snacks. They had agreed on getting pizzas, but it couldn’t hurt to bring extra food; if they were going to eat greasy food they might as well enjoy it properly. He had make sure to buy George favourite vegetable chips brands to avoid him complaining about their diets, and to get the most unhealthy artificial balls that were supposed to taste like cheese that Lando loved. Thrown in there a couple of random things that he hoped Charles would like. He felt a bit uneasy, not knowing what to really expect, and kept reminding himself that this was just a normal reunion of old friends.</p>
<p>When Lando opened the door to let him in, he found that he was the last one to arrive. Alex went straight to the kitchen area, putting the bars on the counter and the beers in the fridge.</p>
<p>“Alexandeeeeeer” he heard before Charles engulfed him in what was becoming his crushing-hug move. Not that he was complaining, he was quite happy to be close with people he knew.</p>
<p>“Hi Charles, hi George”</p>
<p>George greeted him while standing up from the sofa “Albono” he said simply.</p>
<p>Lando then came from his room bringing an extra controller “We were playing Rocket league, I’ve just downloaded it and we are absolutely terrible at it, you wanna join?”</p>
<p>“Oh Alex, you are the best!”, George had move around to the counter and was checking the contents of the bags “we were waiting for you to call for the pizzas, but I’m so hungry already.” He took the vegetables crisps and started munching on them.</p>
<p>“What’s that, George?” Charles face changed from curious to disgusted as soon as he saw what George was eating “uh, really? How can you eat that? They are terrible, mate”. The Monegasque walked around and grab one of the chips while putting his arm around George shoulders “absolutely terrible” he said while shaking his head.</p>
<p>“Don’t give me that, they’re good. And healthy” George stretched his arm to put the bag as far as possible from Charles, “how am I meant to keep this body if I don’t take care of myself? You must do the same”, and he accompanied the sentence with looking up and down Charles’s body.</p>
<p>“No I don’t, this requires no effort” and Charles had the guts to blink at George while saying that “and also, today’s a day off, aaaaah, that’s better” he had found the other snacks and took a couple while moving back to the sofa with George following him and sitting next to him. Quite close by Alex’s standards, surely they didn’t need to be sat together in the small sofa.</p>
<p>“Was that… flirting?” Lando said sotto vocce to Alex, both boys frozen in place while the exchange was happening. “Is it supposed to be this uncomfortable to watch?” Lando looked like he wanted to go and hide in his room again, a bit of a blush getting to his cheeks, but a serious face. That was a bit of a change, though Alex, he’d imagine Lando laughing at the situation and asking the boys to just shut up.</p>
<p>“I honestly have no idea. Glad to see I’m not the only one who feels uneasy”, Alex answered.</p>
<p>“yeah, uneasy is a good word… let’s go with uneasy for now. Anyway, you wanna play?”</p>
<p>And with that they grabbed the most comfortable sits they could; Alex ended up in the floor with a pillow and Lando in a chair while Charles and George shared the sofa, shoulders pressed together. Any uneasiness was quickly forgotten, and the air filled with screams and laughter. Rocket League turned out to be a mess of a game, and playing in a split screen with four people make it extremely difficult to concentrate. But their competitive side, they all had it, kicked in, and Lando and Charles were winning their mini tournament when the pizzas arrived.</p>
<p>“Alright, let’s move boys, this is screen is making me dizzy” George made them move to the table to have dinner “like proper adults” as he said, so Lando put music while Alex grabbed them drinks and cutlery.</p>
<p>“Really? Will you eat the pizza with knife and fork?” Charles had a smug grin while looking at Alex. “True, maybe not,” so Alex emptied his hands and walked to sit on the table next to George, who was looking at him intensely for no apparent reason. Had Alex drank too much? That was only his second beer, but maybe he was imagining things. Lando seemed as cheerful as ever, but maybe a bit too much. Alex tried to decipher what was going through the youngest’s head, but had honestly no clue. He just seemed a bit louder than usual, movements exaggerated, very attentive at what Charles was doing and responding to it. George was using his wit to make Charles and Lando blush with his innuendos, while shooting glances at Alex. And Charles just seemed to really enjoy all the attention, smile permanently plastered on his face. Yeah, maybe Alex was just reading too much into the situation. He decided to lean back and join in with the banter, there was always time later to unpack whatever it was that was making his tummy feel weird.</p>
<p>And so the night ended up being very enjoyable, not a “what have you been doing with your life” kind of artificial conversation, but just friends reunited after a long time, with no need to dwell into the past.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>aand that's it for today! I think the next chapter will be more introspective, it's time to unpack things, for all of them! anyway, I hope you liked it and enjoy the story so far :)<br/>I'll try to be a bit more consistant with updates</p>
<p>Stay safe everyone!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Any comment will be very much appreciated! even if it's a complain about something that doesn't make sense.</p><p>I hope you are all doing okay, take care of yourselves, and thank you for reading! :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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